Last week I said the following to a fellow Schmidling (yes, that’s what we call each other): “Wow, we could really make their catalog sing!” What a strange idiom. Or is it? I love listening to my favorite musicians for a reason. Yip Harbor, who wrote Somewhere Over the Rainbow, offers the reason why. […]
Part 4: The Physics of Creative What if I told you it’s possible to increase response by 5% or more? Sometimes returning to the proven foundations of effective catalog design can make that happen. Yes, the role of the catalog has changed over the last 10 years – dramatically. But what hasn’t changed is the […]
Well, it’s (finally) 2021. As we crawl carefully, still masked, out of the shadows of 2020, there is still much unknown. One trend I’m trying to understand is which way the external agency vs. in-house team pendulum will swing. Some suggest that the multilayered crisis that was 2020 now has in-house teams shrinking due to […]
Receiving the Amazon catalog in the mail seemed like an industry event. The biggest online retailer in the world mailing a catalog? For many of us that grew up in the catalog world, we felt vindicated; print is powerful. But with all the muscle in the world, how do you think their catalog stacked […]
Part 6: Photography As visual creatures, we are compelled by what we see. Images draw our attention. They hold our interest. They spark our memories, our emotions. They move us to react, and to act. As marketers, we strive for breakthrough creative moments with our audience. We want to make an instant impression and invite […]
Part 4: Gimme 5 (Tips for Engaging Copy) Why do brands spend so much time and money on photoshoots? Because images matter a lot in marketing. The brain processes pictures first. But words matter, too. Alongside those great photos and great design is the copy on the page or screen. And this copy must be […]
Part 3: The Art of Simplicity Simplicity in marketing isn’t easy to achieve but making engagement easy can be fairly simple. That sentence is a brain twister, right? Let me untangle the words. ‘Simple’ and ‘Easy’ are two different things, and both are critically important when it comes to effective marketing. Simple means making something uncomplicated, like expressing […]
PART 2: THE PHYSICS OF CREATIVE What if I told you it’s possible to increase response by 5% or more? Sometimes returning to the proven foundations of effective catalog design can make that happen. Yes, the role of the catalog has changed over the last 10 years – dramatically. But what hasn’t changed is the […]
PART 1: STORYTELLING I’ve spent the last 35 years of my life doing one thing—thinking of creative ways for brands to get noticed. This includes crafting campaigns that connect emotionally with people, designing experiences online and offline that delight the customer, and telling brand stories that make people want to be a part of something, […]
